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• Majority Decision Making

  81-100

  Levente Nagy

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  Modern democracies, based on pluralism, recognize and affirm diversity, permit peaceful
  coexistence of different interests, values and convictions, and advocate a form of political
  moderation. For democracy to function and to be successful two of the most challenging
  questions must be raised and answered: Who have the right for collective decision-making?
  What principle should be used for these people to be elected? With the development of modern
  democracies it has become more and more accepted the idea that democracy should rest upon
  the principle of majority rule, coupled with individual and minority rights. Majority rule thus
  refers to the quantitative aspect of democracy, while individual and minority rights express
  the qualitative or constitutional aspect of it. A detailed analysis of democratic decision-making
  processes shows that not all decisions made by legislature – whose members are elected by the
  majority of the people – are effective and good decisions, and points at the fact that most of the
  democratic decisions are not made by the majority but by minority groups, who quite often take
  the initiative and can seriously influence the majority. This paper focuses on these issues.